Shunyata Altaira Grounding Station ........has anybody purchased this new product ?

I watched an interesting ground box video today. Not released to the public yet. The author is very conscious to state its a controversial topic as most people have no idea how a ground box works. I have no idea myself. I have never heard a good reason either. If anything, I have heard good evidence why they should not work. Were supposed to believe you can suck stray electrons off something. This guy was actually saying it may, and I say may have something to do with altering the mass of the device so it absorb energy. He has no idea either. Just ether talk he hears.

And why would your system ground influence the performance of a ground box.  Why does Caelin say a good ground system at the house helps.   Are we to believe that once the box grabbed the electrons, its now going to willingly release them.  To where?  Earth.  I have at a job and at my house lifted the ground and heard nothing.  Of course this whole earth ground concept gets a little convoluted when you start to consider that the neutral from the utility is also a 0 potential ground.  Its better than the ground at your house.  That is how a clamp on ground resistance tester works.  It know the utility grid is made up of tens of thousands of grounds.  There is a ground dropped at every transformer across the city and country.  They are all tied together .  Walk the line and look.  The neutral never breaks.  The phases are split every 5 or 6 houses.  The earth resistance meter injects a signal into the ground wire and does a calculation based upon the utility being 0, so everything else is your earth ground. 

So lifting your house ground is only loosing one ok ground.  You still have a 0 ohm ground from the utility.  If you lift the utility ground, all heck breaks loose.  You may light your house on fire.  I have done clean up after a utility neutral broke at a clients house out at the pole.  He lost a few appliances.  His door bell transformer burned to a crisp.  Lucky his house did not go up in flames.  Literally.  

The part I found interesting was his experience. They are a lot of money for little gain. Like, he thinks he hears it. He’s pretty sure he hears it. But he is also very aware of conscious bias. I just spent blablabla amount of money. Its got to be great.

I know there are other areas related to your electrical supply that make much more audible and unmistakable changes to equipment performance. I think his video solidified a statement I heard from another well know member of the audiophile community. Ground boxes are a finishing touch. When all else is done, go ahead and try a box. That person has about 4 or 5 in his system.

The Shunyata Altaira Ground System uses actual noise suppression filtering electrical components inside each the two boxes. Not pixie dust, not iron fillings, not dirt taken from the deepest parts of the earth, but actual electrical component noise filters.

In the video I posted above in this thread Gabriel explains the noise filters used in the system, and how they are connected.

Earth Ground,... can be confusing. If you look an electrical wiring diagram for the electrical system of an automobile you will see the earth ground symbol used at various places in the diagram. We all know an automobile electrical system does not have a connection to mother earth. Same for a Laptop computer. If you were to look at a wiring diagram for a typical laptop computer you will see the earth ground symbol used.

The F-35 Lightning II Jet Fighter has probably one of the most sophisticated electronics systems in the world. No doubt Faraday shielding and noise filtering galore, but no connection to mother earth.

Of course this whole earth ground concept gets a little convoluted when you start to consider that the neutral from the utility is also a 0 potential ground. Its better than the ground at your house.

0 potential referenced point measured to where? Maybe in the sphere around the ground rod.

The Utility power transformer neutral, (The Grounded Conductor), is connected to mother earth again at the electrical service of the house.

There is a ground dropped at every transformer across the city and country. They are all tied together . Walk the line and look. The neutral never breaks.

And the high voltage power Line neutral, (Grounded Conductor), is also connected to the step down Utility isolation Transformer’s secondary center tapped neutral. Both are connected to mother earth by the ground wire.

So lifting your house ground is only loosing one ok ground. You still have a 0 ohm ground from the utility. If you lift the utility ground, all heck breaks loose. You may light your house on fire. I have done clean up after a utility neutral broke at the clients house out at the pole. He lost a few appliances. His door bell transformer burned to a crisp. Lucky his house did not go up in flames. Literally.

Yeah, an open neutral conductor connection can cause big problems on a 3 wire split phase power system. Same thing can happen on a 3 wire multiwire branch circuit used inside the home. Another good reason not feed audio equipment using a 3 wire multiwire branch circuit.

One thing that should be made clear for the laymen reading this thread. The neutral, (The Grounded Conductor), is an intentionally grounded current carrying conductor.

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Here is a White Paper Worth reading:

https://www.fullcompass.com/common/files/5644-PowerandGroundingforAudioandAudioVisualSystems.pdf

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I got off the phone with a client yesterday.  He went through the entire process I specify.  He reworked his grounding, panels, subpanels, branch wires.  He got rid of as much aluminum as he could.  He did it all accept for install an isolation transformer.  After he finished the work he tried an Altaira.  He heard nothing, so he returned it.

I have had other clients do the same, rework their electrical.  When done, they get rid of filters they plug into the wall.  Not all of them.  Some.  A few filter in particular go, and a few stay. 

Reworking your electrical can be as expensive as a component.  And you can't remove it and sell it for 40% of what you spent on it.  But I believe it is the foundation of all audio based music.  It is as necessary as a speaker, amp and source.  If you are missing any one of the 4, you don't have a functional audio reproduction system.   You can live without everything else.  You don't need a stand, room, footers, ground box, filter.  You don't need any of it.   

If I was  spending $$$ to upgrade my audio performance, I would put a ground box as very low on the list of to do.  I would put optimizing your electrical up there with speaker and room.  It’s a very audible change the investment.   I would put an isolation transformer in well before a ground box.  They cost close to the same or less when you start adding in all the ground cables.

@kingrex

Oh, the comments about how one should set up a plain ground bar were in a video on YouTube. If you search for "Shunyata Altaira" and then click on the one with "Mike & Rick," Caelin talks about it there.

For a nice simple copper grounding bar I like the SMD UB-8 (Universal Power/ Grounding Bar - 8 post).

i currently am trialling the Altaira.  it is connected to analog components (power supply for TT, RIAA, Integrated Amplifier and Step up Transformer).  i installed it only last night.  all of my system is from audio note.

i immediately noticed the SUT hum was gone entirely.

the noise level has been significantly lowered.  so much so that i am still getting used to it.  it makes some music sound better, it makes some music sound less flamboyant (i think because it removes some distortion which can be quite fetching in some contexts).

i found the accompanying literature very edifying (basic grounding concepts).

i don't imagine there would be too many people who wouldn't get something out of this.  i do wonder if certain components are voiced such that with the grounding sorted we lose some of that voice/thickness. the detail is beyond the pale though.  last night it was Silkworm's "Lifestyle" and for the first time ever i heard overtones on an electric guitar (similar to what i hear when i play in my home). so it seems to be allowing harmonic information to come thru that i do not normally get.  

worth a shot is my advice.  you might like it.  it certainly does quite a bit in my system although i am as yet unsure as to whether or not i will buy it (slightly more to do with available funds than anything else though).